A Victorian
governess relationship with her tormented employer.
Jane Eyre
is one of those stories that while terribly important and avant-garde in their
time hasn’t aged really well. Under the shape of a classic Victorian romance it
delivered social commentary and a very early form of feminism. The problem is
that that feminism and the whole romance, with his throbbing chests and weeping
eyes, looks dated by today standard. We can intellectually understand that for
a Victorian young lady Jane Eyre is incredibly advanced but we can’t help but
grow restless watching her taking literally forever to develop her
relationship.
Having said
that, Bronte dialogue is still light years better than the standard faire that
is offered by her modern counterparts. It is sophisticated in a way that modern
filmmakers shy away from, probably fearing that the average moviegoer wouldn’t
understand it.
The background
is wonderful. TV tropes call this kind of stuff, Scenery porn and I think that
this is an apt description. The costume setting is picture perfect and the English
countryside is filmed in a gorgeous way. It was really a pleasure just watching
the snow falling on the thatched roof of her house.
The cast is
good but they cat in a strangely stilted way, there is an overall feeling of
playacting, of “We are not really these characters we are just playing them.
This artificiality is not unpleasant per se but it limits the film scope
somewhat.
In the end
we couldn’t immerse ourselves in the story but we certainly enjoyed the
experience.
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